The Washington Post - 18.09.2019

A8 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 , 2019

BY RACHAEL BADE,

COLBY ITKOWITZ

AND JOHN WAGNER

Corey Lewandowski refused to
answer questions, talked over
lawmakers and mocked Demo-
crats for their investigation of
President Trump. He lectured a
congressman for saying the tooth
fairy wasn’t real, ribbed another
for a failed presidential bid and
even promoted a potential r un for
the U.S. Senate.
Democrats on the House Judi-
ciary Committee subpoenaed
Trump’s f ormer campaign manag-
er, hoping to learn more about his
testimony to special counsel Rob-
ert S. Mueller III in the probe of
Russian interference in the 2016
election. Instead, they got a front-
row seat Tuesday to the Lewan-
dowski Show — a performance
aimed at an audience of one: his
former boss.
Trump, who was watching, ap-
plauded Lewandowski on Twitter,
writing that he gave a “beautiful”
opening statement. But Lewan-
dowski’s defiance and disregard
for Democrats’ impeachment in-
quiry also prompted a contempt
threat from Democrats.
“Mr. Lewandowski, your be-
havior in this hearing room has
been completely unacceptable,”
House Judiciary Committee
Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.)

said. “You have shown the public

that the Trump administration

will do anything and everything

in its power to obstruct the work

of the Congress.”

The five-hour-plus hearing did

produce confirmation from Le-

wandowski of one key element in

the Mueller report. Under intense

questioning from committee

counsel, the former campaign

manager affirmed that the presi-

dent personally asked him to per-

suade then-Attorney General Jeff

Sessions to limit the special coun-

sel’s investigation.

Lewandowski never delivered

the message, the report found —

instead passing it off to a Trump

official.

He testified Tuesday that he

went on “vacation” and merely

ran out of time — not because he

worried that Trump’s request was

illegal. But if Democrats were

hoping to elicit more information

about the episode to build their

impeachment case, Lewandowski

dashed those hopes.

He set the tone in his opening

statement, mocking Democrats

and ridiculing what he called

the “fake Russia collusion narra-

tive.”

“We as a nation would be better

served if elected officials like you

concentrated your efforts to com-

bat the true crises facing our

country as opposed to going down

rabbit holes like this hearing,”

Lewandowski said. “If instead of

focusing on petty and personal

politics, t he committee focused on

solving the challenges of this gen-

eration, imagine how many peo-

ple we could help.”

Under questioning, Lewan-

dowski routinely asked for page

numbers, feigned ignorance and

otherwise dodged questions from

Democrats.

“The White House has directed

that I not disclose the substance of

any discussion with the president

or his advisers to protect execu-

tive branch confidentiality,” he

said repeatedly. “I recognize this

is not my privilege, but I am re-

specting the White House’s deci-

sion.”

It was Lewandowski’s attitude

that most infuriated panel Demo-

crats, who chided him for being

disrespectful and filibustering

their hearing. “Mr. Lewandowski,

you’re like a fish being cleaned

with a spoon; it’s very hard to get

an answer out of you,” said Rep.

Hank Johnson (D-Ga.). Added a

frustrated Rep. Sheila Jackson

Lee (D-Tex.): “This is the House

Judiciary Committee! Not a house

party!”

“This is my time,” yelled the

usually even-tempered Rep.

Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) when

Lewandowski talked over her.

“You are a witness b efore the J udi-

ciary Committee. Please act like

it!”

Throughout the hearing, it was

clear that Lewandowski knew

Trump was watching. The former

campaign aide extolled the presi-

dent for getting “more votes than

any candidate in the history of the

Republican Party.”

He a lso took a swipe at Trump’s

2016 rival, Hillary Clinton, and

her handling of emails, and criti-

cized the “Obama-Biden adminis-

tration” for its inability to stop

Russia election interference —

dropping the name of the former

vice president and 2020 p residen-

tial candidate.

“Donald Trump was a private

citizen and had no more responsi-

bility than I did to protect t he 2016

election,” he said. “That fell to the

Obama-Biden administration

and they failed. ”

Lewandowski’s appearance

marked the first time House Dem-

ocrats had a key witness in the

Mueller investigation testify in

public — a move they welcomed

even though he was fiercely loyal

to Trump.

Looming large was Lewan-

dowski’s political ambitions. Dur-

ing a break from testimony, he

tweeted about a possible bid and

mentioned a political action com-

mittee backing a candidacy.

“New website just launched to

help a potential senate run. Sign

up now!” he wrote during a panel

break, a reference to his potential

challenge to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen

(D-N.H.).

Trump last month touted the

possibility of a Lewandowski can-

didacy in New Hampshire, calling

his former aide “a fantastic guy”

who “would be a great senator.”

Lewandowski has said he plans to

make a decision about the race

next month — and he is likely to

benefit from Trump’s backing.

Democrats privately wondered

whether Lewandowski’s desire

for a Trump endorsement w as one

of the reasons he was so defiant.

At one point, Rep. Eric Swalwell

(D-Calif.) t ried to get Lewandows-

ki to merely read the section i n the

Mueller report about him. He still

wouldn’t do it, and poked fun at

his failed presidential bid, calling

him “President Swalwell.”

That’s w hen t he Democrat f rom

California suggested that Lewan-

dowski was too “ashamed” t o read

the report out loud. “I’m not

ashamed of anything in my life,”

Lewandowski shot back. “Did you

have a consciousness of guilt and

that’s why you can’t read them

aloud?” Swalwell asked.

The back-and-forth prompted

Nadler to jump in to accuse Le-

wandowski of obstructing the

committee’s work. An angry Rep.

David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.) agreed,

suggesting the panel should hold

Lewandowski in contempt.

Nadler said he’d take that pro-

posal under consideration. D emo-

crats privately discussed that step

but decided to keep the focus on

Trump, according to officials who

spoke on the condition of ano-

nymity to freely discuss private

deliberations.

At times the hearing was al-

most comical. When Rep.

Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) asked

Lewandowski, “A re you the hit

man, bag man, the lookout or all

of the above?” Lewandowski re-

plied: “I think I’m the good-look-

ing man, actually.”

Lewandowski also scolded

Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) for

saying the tooth fairy was not

real: “My children are watching,

so thank you for that.”

Republicans, meanwhile, used

their time to praise the president

and sympathize with Lewan-

dowski because Democrats asked

him to testify.

“Why do Dems continue this

charade?” Trump ally Rep. Matt

Gaetz (R-Fla.) asked. Lewandows-

ki replied: “I think they hate this

president more than they love

their country.”

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

Josh Dawsey contributed to this

report.

Ex-campaign manager’s testimony frustrates House Democrats, delights Trump

BY JULIET EILPERIN

AND NICK MIROFF

Bulldozers and excavators
rushing to install President
Trump’s border barrier could
damage or destroy up to 22 ar-
chaeological sites within Ari-
zona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National
Monument in coming months, ac-
cording to an internal National
Park Service report obtained by
The Washington Post.
The administration’s plan to
convert an existing five-foot-high
vehicle barrier into a 30-foot steel
edifice could pose irreparable
harm to unexcavated remnants of
ancient Sonoran Desert peoples.
Experts identified these risks as
U.S. Customs and Border Protec-
tion seeks to fast-track the con-
struction to meet Trump’s cam-
paign pledge of completing 500
miles of barrier by n ext year’s e lec-
tion.
Unlike concerns about the bar-
rier project that have come from
private landowners, churches,
communities and advocacy
groups, these new warnings a bout
the potential destruction of his-
toric sites come from within the
government itself.
The National Park Service’s 123-
page report, obtained via the Free-
dom of Information Act, emerges
from a well-respected agency
within the I nterior Department as
the Department of Homeland Se-
curity and the White House push
ahead with their construction
plans. While the government
scrambles to analyze vulnerable
sites as heavy equipment moves
in, the administration also faces
external challenges seeking to
block the use of eminent domain
to seize land, as well as lawsuits
asking courts to halt work in and
around wildlife refuges and other
protected lands.
New construction began last
month within the O rgan Pipe C ac-
tus National Monument, an inter-
nationally recognized biosphere
reserve southwest of Phoenix with
nearly 330,000 acres of congres-
sionally designated wilderness.
The work is part of a 43-mile span
of fencing that also traverses the
adjacent Cabeza Prieta National
Wildlife Refuge.
With the president demanding
weekly updates on construction
progress and tweeting out drone
footage of new fencing through
the desert, administration offi-
cials have said they are under
extraordinary pressure to meet
Trump’s c onstruction goals.
The Department of Homeland
Security has taken advantage of a
2005 law to waive several federal
requirements — including the Ar-
chaeological Resources Protec-
tion Act, the National Historic
Preservation Act and the Endan-
gered Species Act — that could
have slowed and possibly stopped
the barrier’s advance in the
stretch in A rizona.
The Organ Pipe Cactus area h as
been one of the busiest this year
for migrant border crossings, an
influx that includes large groups
of adults and children walking
through t he d esert t o surrender to
U.S. agents, typically seeking hu-
manitarian protections.
Some archaeological features
along the border already have suf-
fered damage as Border Patrol
agents zoom through in pursuit o f
migrants and smugglers i n all-ter-
rain vehicles, according to federal
officials a nd two experts who have
conducted research i n the region.
Environmental groups have

fought unsuccessfully to halt con-

struction i n protected areas, argu-

ing that more-imposing barriers

could disrupt wildlife migration

and threaten the survival of im-

periled species.

But there has been little men-

tion of the potential damage to

archaeological sites, where stone

tools, ceramic shards and other

pre-Columbian artifacts are ex-

tremely well-preserved in the arid

environment. Desert-dwelling

peoples have populated the area

for at least 16,000 years, particu-

larly around the oasis of Quito-

baquito Springs in the national

monument, one of the few places

where the Quitobaquito pupfish

and the endangered Sonoyta mud

turtle still live i n the w ild.

The oasis was part of a prehis-

toric trade r oute, the Old S alt Trail,

where northern Mexican com-

modities including salt, obsidian

and seashells were plentiful, ac-

cording to the Park Service. The

traders were followed by Spanish

missionaries, Western settlers,

and other travelers and nomads

who came to drink.

The springs and surrounding

desert wetlands are just 200 feet

from the border, where crews plan

to bring in heavy earth-moving

equipment to install the giant

steel barriers. Scientists have

raised concerns that the springs

could dry up if crews pump

groundwater f rom the a rea for t he

barrier’s concrete base.

CBP officials said the agency

has l ooked at “ most” o f the archae-

ological sites i dentified in t he Park

Service report and found just five

that are within the 60-foot-wide

strip of federal land on the U.S.

side of the border where the gov-

ernment will erect the structure,

an area known as the Roosevelt

Reservation, which was set aside

along the border in California,

Arizona and N ew M exico. Of those

five, o fficials said, one h ad a “lithic

scatter” — r emnants of s tone t ools

and other culturally relevant arti-

facts.

Construction crews do not yet

have a plan to begin work at that

location, CBP officials said, noting

that the agency has had discus-

sions with the Park Service about

collecting and analyzing frag-

ments of historic significance

from that site.

“We’ve been working very

closely with the park,” said a CBP

official, who spoke on the condi-

tion of anonymity to discuss the

administration’s plan for building

near archaeological sites along the

border.

The officials said they have not

delayed or otherwise altered their

construction plans to conduct

more detailed surveys or excava-

tions in t he area.

Officials said crews with earth-

moving equipment have started

installing barriers in a two-mile

section east o f the b order crossing

at Lukeville, Ariz., a particularly

busy stretch for i llegal crossings.

CBP officials acknowledged

that trucks and earth-moving

equipment driving through the

fragile desert risk harming sites

outside the specific construction

zones. The officials said they are

following Park Service guidance

as to where workers can d rive.

With CBP, the U.S. Army Corps

of Engineers and their construc-

tion contractors under pressure

from the White House, federal

land in the West has become the

easiest place to quickly add fenc-

ing. There are few private land-

owners in the desert terrain out-

side Te xas, and it is a far easier

place t o build than along the wind-

ing riverbanks of the Rio G rande.

At least a dozen Native Ameri-

can tribes claim connections to

the lands within the Organ Pipe

Cactus National Monument, espe-

cially near Quitobaquito. They in-

clude the To hono O’odham Na-

tion, which used to inhabit a large

swath of the Sonoran Desert and

whose reservation lies north and

east of the park’s boundaries.

Members of the nation — who

have revived the practice of fol-

lowing the Old Salt Trail — have

protested the idea of any new

construction in an area once in-

habited by their ancestors, the

Hohokam, who lived there be-

tween 200 and 1,400 A.D.

To hono O’odham Nation Chair-

man Ned Norris Jr. said his tribe

remains opposed to any new bor-

der f ence construction.

“We’ve historically lived in this

area from time immemorial,” he

said. “We feel very strongly that

this particular wall will desecrate

this area f orever. I would c ompare

it to building a wall over your

parents’ g raveyards. It w ould have

the s ame effect.”

Rick Martynec, an archaeolo-

gist who is conducting volunteer

surveys of sites within the Cabeza

Prieta National Wildlife Refuge

along with his wife, Sandy, said

researchers have not had time to

properly evaluate the area now

targeted for construction.

“Quitobaquito, as we know it,

may be destroyed before anyone

has had a chance to evaluate the

consequences of the current ac-

tions,” Martynec said. “What’s the

rush?”

He noted that relevant sites

within the monument “include e v-

idence of hunting, farming and

home sites” along with “historic

cemeteries.” He added that the

adjacent wildlife refuge has other

archaeological artifacts, including

a rare intaglio figure spanning

several hundred yards that was

probably c reated f or a ritual.

The Martynecs were doing re-

search in the refuge at one point

and s aw a Border Patrol agent o n a

four-wheeler motoring up a road

on which the agency was not au-

thorized to drive, “right over a

huge roasting pit” used by an an-

cient community, he recalled.

They later checked to see if an

incident report had been filed —

as would be required if the agency

was traversing that land — but

none had been, Martynec s aid.

In the Park Service report sum-

marizing the results of a survey of

11.3 miles along the U.S.-Mexico

border, the agency’s archaeolo-

gists note that previous research

had “identified and recorded 17

archaeological sites which likely

will be wholly or partially de-

stroyed by forthcoming border

fence construction.” The park ex-

perts, who conducted their survey

in June, identified five more ar-

chaeological sites that also would

be imperiled and w ould d eserve to

be protected by a National Regis-

ter o f Historic P laces d esignation.

The report notes that staffers

were unable to complete a survey

of the entire length of the U.S. side

of the border that lies within the

monument’s boundaries. Park

Service archaeologists plan to sur-

vey another 1.7-mile section of the

park’s southern border later this

month.

Kevin Dahl, Arizona senior pro-

gram manager for the National

Parks Conservation Association,

said that under normal circum-

stances, the agency would take

steps to protect archaeological

sites under its purview, including

a lengthy excavation process if

necessary.

CBP has announced plans to

complete this section of barriers

through the national monument

by January. Those plans call for

new fencing in five or six “non-

contiguous areas,” including plac-

es within the monument where

the a rchaeological sites are f ound,

agency officials said. The sections

of new barrier are not necessarily

contiguous because the terrain

might be too steep or mountain-

ous to install a single, unbroken

span of f encing.

The project within the monu-

ment includes a new steel bollard

fence running continuously f or 9.

miles, reinforced with an 8- to

10-foot-deep concrete-and-steel

foundation.

“A rchaeology takes time, and

they have a deadline,” Dahl said,

referring to CBP. “Putting a wall

there is insane. This is just one

more reason why ramming this

wall through, using i llegal, u ncon-

stitutional money, is damaging to

these public resources. We’re de-

stroying w hat the w all i s supposed

to protect.”

National Park Service spokes-

man Jeremy Barnum said the

agency’s mission “is to preserve

unimpaired the natural and cul-

tural resources and values of the

National Park System for the en-

joyment, education, and inspira-

tion of this and future genera-

tions.” But he noted that some of

the parks along the U.S.-Mexico

border have been subjected to

“cross-border illegal activities”

and that the a gency has c oordinat-

ed with the Department of Home-

land Security to a ddress the issue.

In 2002, a park ranger at Organ

Pipe was shot and killed as he

pursued members of a drug cartel

hit squad who had fled to the

United States from Mexico. The

Park Service closed more t han h alf

the monument to the public the

following year but reopened it en-

tirely in September 2014.

“The National Park Service ap-

preciates the role of an integrated

border security approach and val-

ues the ongoing interagency ef-

forts to address the multidimen-

sional issue,” B arnum said.

An archaeologist working for a

CBP contractor, Northland Re-

search, is on site every day when

crews are working on the barrier

fence, according to federal and

tribal officials. The firm referred

requests for comment to the gov-

ernment agency.

[email protected]

[email protected]

Border wall may destroy archeological sites, Park Service report warns

JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST

A fence runs along the U.S.-Mexico border at Arizona’s Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Replacing it with a 30 -foot-tall steel

barrier, as envisioned by President Trump, could damage as many as 2 2 archaeological sites there, a government assessment says.

MEXICOU.S.

Ajo

Sonoyta

Gila Riv

er Valley

Lukeville

Puerto

Penasco

Gulf of

California

To hono

O’odham

Reservation

Organ Pipe

Cactus

Nat’l Mon.

Cabeza Prieta

Nat’l Wildlife Refuge

SONORA

ARIZONA

Barry Goldwater

Air Force Range

Phoenix

100 MILES

Detail

CALIF. ARIZONA N.M.

U.S.

Pacific MEXICO

Ocean

San Diego

Tijuana

Nogales

Tucson

25 MILES

Installation of barriers along

a two-mile section east of the

border crossing at Lukeville

began in August.

A vital desert

oasis.

Quitobaquito

Springs

Planned

construction

to convert a five-foot-

high vehicle barrier to

a 30-foot-high steel

barrier with lighting.

Source: Center for Biological Diversity

EXISTING

BARRI

ER

THE WASHINGTON POST